Thunder
by mynameisgeorge
Summary: Lance knows that he has always been different. He's always been stronger, always been tougher than any human should be, and no normal human causes abnormal weather patterns and city-wide blackouts when upset. What he doesn't know is where he comes from . So when a chance to find the answers to al his questions presents itself, he's going to grab it with both hands and never let go.
1. Prologue

He's always had the hammer.

It was a bit odd, considering that _always_ even stretched back to his earliest memory of playing a childish game of hide and seek with his siblings ( _are they?_ ) Marco and Veronica. Why would a toddler have a hammer? Furthermore, why did a toddler need a hammer clearly made for war?

It's a simple thing, only an engraved block of a strange metal firmly attached (by means unknown) to a handle wrapped in leather. Along the head exists a string of runic symbols that he can never (on the tip of his tongue) remember, but never fails to make him think of warm fires in the hearths, a constant but comfortable and familiar din, and an overwhelming sense of love (" _What does that one mean, Mama?_ "). By all rights it should be incredibly heavy, but he's always been much too strong for his age, and it feels like a feather.

Unlike most other children, he's never picked it up and thrown it at something, never broken it in a fit of childish rage. In fact, he's always been an exceptionally well-behaved child, as he learned from a very young age that his tantrums are dangerous and would most probably lead to broken people instead of broken toys.

Humans are fragile. He is not.

He doesn't know why he has the hammer. He knows it is abnormal for someone to own such a weapon. He doesn't know what the warmth he feels when he touched it means. He knows that it is his.

* * *

Sometimes he wonders about his family. He knows he wasn't born into the one he was in now; he is too different. Sure, he looks like them, speaks the same language as them, plays with them, but something has always been different. It isn't until he is seven that he learned what adoption is, and that no matter who his parents had been he has new ones now.

Even knowing that he was loved by his adopted family, he still puzzles over his birth family. What kind of parents could give birth to a child that could bend steel with his bare hands at the tender age of 5? And why would they give him the hammer?

He used to ask his mother where he had come from but gave up when she would only smile at him and say " _mi hijo,_ you came to us from the stars." He's always thought that it felt like a cop-out answer, a way of telling him that he was special rather than an unwanted child.

Still, he never fails to look up at the night sky to see if he could find his home.

* * *

Years pass, and still he searches for his origin, the hammer his only clue. He knows now that he cannot be human: he is too strong, too resilient, and no human has ever caused a neighborhood-wide blackout by being upset. His suspicions are confirmed by the way that the adults in his family guard him, making sure that his Uncle Luis is the only doctor he ever goes to, even though they must travel across Cuba to see him every time. He knows for certain when he sees the falsified information on the medical forms his family sends to the Galaxy Garrison with his application: he's never been vaccinated in his life, never had blood drawn (no needle could ever pierce his skin).

When he finally arrives at the Garrison, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to go off into outer space, he keeps everything his family has taught him close: don't be too strong, don't be too fast, and _for the love of God, Lance, don't do that sparking thing again!_ He meets his first friend and roommate within the first week, a gentle giant around his age named Hunk, who is later assigned to be his engineer. He meets his second friend ( _are they actually friends?_ ) a few weeks later. Pidge Gunderson is a late transfer from some school he ( _she, Lance's nose doesn't lie_ ) never talks about and has no interest in making friends during his ( _her_ ) time at the Garrison, preferring instead to work on some all-consuming project that clearly means a great deal to her. Through a combination of mostly bull-headed persistence and a bit of the good ol' McClain charm, he and Hunk manage to rope Pidge into seeing them as at least acquaintances.

Lance counts it as a victory.

* * *

Hunk asks about the hammer, once.

Lance shrugs, "It's always been with me."

* * *

He never does well in the flight simulations.

To him, they're not real enough, he feels no connection to the ship he flies. He knows that if he could just get in a real ship, feel the turbulence and sway of space, and actually see the sun and the moon and the stars all at once without having to turn his head that he would be the best damn pilot that Iverson—no, the world—has ever seen.

All his confidence and bluster mean nothing when he sees the back of the head of the boy who scores the best in the simulator, who _takes the last spot in the fighter pilot class,_ leaving Lance to be nothing but a cargo pilot with broken dreams.

He decides he'll always hate that stupid mullet.

Still, his hammer will always be with him.

* * *

When he's told that he's been moved up to the fighter pilot classes after mullet-kid washes out, he silently wonders what happened.

He hopes being a fighter pilot in the Galaxy Garrison will help him find the answers he seeks.

* * *

He is right, in a roundabout way.

* * *

When he and his friends see the ship ( _what else could it be?_ ) falling from the sky, his heart stops, and then beats twice as fast, a heavy staccato in his chest. Could this be the answer to all his questions, every half-formed thought dreamt up in the late hours of the night?

As Lance hurriedly snatches everything he thinks he needs, he doesn't even hesitate to grab the hammer. Pidge raises an eyebrow. Again, Lance shrugs, "You never know when you might need it."

Rushing towards the crash site, of course they end up meeting with Keith ( _he still hates that mullet_ ), who has apparently been waiting in the desert for months for this very moment. They quickly break out their intended target, who is still weak and tired, and _is that a fully-functional prosthetic arm?_ The only thing Shiro can tell them is "Voltron."

* * *

She's beautiful. Lance steps forward to admire her better through the refractive hexagonal panels surrounding the blue mechanical lion. As the others stand back trying to think of a way past the barrier, Lance opens himself up to the feeling that has always been inside him, feeling a rushing in his mind and body as something _clicks_ on the other end of the line. As he somehow knew it would, the particle barrier lowers, and the enormous lion's jaw opens, a clear invitation echoing through his head.

Inside, there is a chair clearly meant for a pilot, and aside from some minor complaints, no one truly disputes it when Lance makes to sit down and take the reins. Immediately, the fledgling bond Lance holds with this magnificent beast deepens, and he basks in the connection that was never there in the simulators. Grinning, he and Blue ( _he likes that name_ ) come tearing out of the desert cave and out of the atmosphere as one.

There is a non-human ship in the atmosphere.

His first thought is _Are they my people?_ His second is _ohshitohshitohshit I'mbeingshotatwhatdoIdo?_ Just as he begins to panic, he feels a wave of calm excitement from Blue, and smiles when he realizes that it's nothing they can't handle.

The others in the cockpit loudly express their doubts in Lance's flying capabilities once he starts dodging whatever weapons that ship is firing, but they just _can't handle how good we are, right Blue?_ A happy roar is his answer, as he and Blue do a good deal of damage to the ship before breaking off.

A sense of urgency is pressed upon him to leave, to go home, so he does what feels natural, letting Blue guide him ( _he tells the others as much, but they don't quite believe him)_. A tear in space opens, leaving him struck with the memory of a rushing rainbow. Shaking the daydream ( _memory?_ ) off, he steers the lion through the wormhole, trusting that she'll keep him and the others ( _even Mullet_ ) safe.

* * *

 **This idea just kinda struck me. I'm definitely going to continue this, so let me know if you actually want me to.**


	2. Chapter 1

On the other side, the stars are different. Lance notices this first, because he's been looking up at the night sky trying to find his home for his entire life. Shiro comes to the same realization that he does a moment later and murmurs, "I don't recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth." While the others are clearly shaken up by this knowledge, Lance's heart sings as he takes another step towards the truth. He knows this is where he belongs, out here in the stars, and the best part? He didn't have to go through another three years at the Garrison under Iverson!

Lance has a hard time keeping his joy to himself as he and Keith heckle each other, but he knows the others, especially Shiro who seems to have just escaped hostile aliens himself, have no reason to be happy at this turn of events. He tries to ease the tension in the cockpit of this strange, alien warship; he keeps conversation light and even lets out a fart, allowing himself to become a welcome distraction in the bleakness of their situation.

Only once he feels everyone beginning to relax does he point out the plant in front of them that he has been guiding them down to. It is not dissimilar to Earth, according to Blue's scanners. It has a breathable atmosphere, some green vegetation, and even an acceleration of gravity within ten percent of Earth's own.

Lance sees its beauty but does not think it is home.

* * *

Blue urges them to the castle. To be fair, there is nothing else around, so it seems the most logical choice. Shiro, their de facto leader by this point, agrees.

Inside, there is no one. This feels wrong to Lance, who's never known anything but a full, busy home or the constant hustle and bustle of the Garrison. The others seem to notice something is wrong as well. Hunk calls out for echoes, hoping someone, anyone, will respond. Their little group presses onward when they find nothing in the darkness.

When the castle comes alive and begins to scan them, Lance immediately crouches into a battle stance with lightning flickering between his fingers, quickly deciding his secrets are not worth losing any of his friends, his hero, or even Keith. He's always been taught to hide, to not show anyone what he can do for fear of what those in power could do to him, but Lance isn't on Earth now. He's willing to whatever it takes to make sure they all come back alive.

Luckily, it's not necessary for him to fight. Whatever scan the castle ran shows them as friendly, or at the very least not hostile. The lights slowly come on, flickering as if they haven't been used in a long time, and are just remembering how to shine.

The Earthlings are led onward towards some kind of central chamber with a raised platform in the middle of the room. As Pidge notes it to be some kind of control room, two mechanical pods rise up out of the ground and open up.

Lance's heart stops as the most beautiful girl he's ever seen is revealed as the clear material of the pods seems to disintegrate, leaving her to pitch forward as she cries out for her father. Luckily, Lance's body has always been a little bit faster than his brain, and he manages to rush forward and catch her in her arms before she falls to the floor. Unluckily, his mouth is part of that body and opens up of its own volition to offer a cocky "Hello, I'm Lance, and you're right here in my arms."

Naturally, this does not go over well, just like a million times before, and Lance finds himself on the receiving end of a submission hold while the alien beauty demands information. As he answers all of her questions, he subtly tests the strength of her grip. While she is no doubt stronger than any human he has ever met, he notes that would still have no problem tearing his arm free if he was willing to expose himself.

* * *

The woman's name is Allura, and she and her companion Coran (who is definitely Lance's favorite so far) are from a planet called Altea and have been asleep for nigh on ten thousand years. Altea has been destroyed, as well as all of her people, by a creature named Zarkon, leader of the Galra. It turns out that Shiro was a captive of Zarkon as well and can corroborate her claims of his being a genocidal dictator.

Lance sees red. He finally understands why his family must have sent him away: to keep him safe from the destruction of the Galra. Zarkon is the reason he will never be able to find his home, no matter how long he searches. His blood boils in his veins as he quietly swears vengeance on those who destroyed his people, vowing to root them out wherever he can find them.

* * *

In the expeditions to find the other lions, Lance is assigned to escort Hunk to a "peaceful" planet, the home of the Yellow Lion. Naturally, this means that they are chased by Galra fighters and fired at by land to air artillery upon entry, and Lance is forced to hot drop Hunk rather than actually land and search.

Lance does his best to keep the Galra busy, but despite the power both himself and the Blue Lion, he is only one man, and some manage to slip past him. His heart sinks into his stomach as he sees the missiles impact the cave that Hunk ran into, spelling the end of the best friend he's ever had. He pushes the tears down and allows the rage to rise just under his skin, causing the air in Blue's cockpit to crackle with power. Blue seems to pick up on his anger and roars, redoubling her lasers and speed in an attempt to take out every last one of the Galra who killed his people and his friend.

* * *

When the Yellow Lion tunnels out of the ground it is to the sight of a destroyed Galra encampment. Where once there were hundreds of sentries, fighters and anti-air placements, now there are scattered broken parts and scorch marks. In the middle of it all sits the Blue Lion, not moving, eyes not glowing, until it sees him.

"Hunk! You're alive!" cries Lance as the Blue Lion powers up and bounds over to him.

"Wow man," breathes Hunk, "it looks like you were busy up here."

Before they can continue this happy reunion Allura's face appears on a screen in their lions, warning them that they need to get back to the Castle of Lions as soon as possible. Lance barely holds in some witty flirtatious comment on the tip of his tongue. He can't help it, it's who he is and she's just so beautiful it's hard not to.

* * *

At the castle they meet up with Shiro and Pidge, who have successfully returned with the Green Lion, leaving them in possession of four lions, only three of which are currently available. In order to get access to the Black Lion, which will form the head of Voltron, they need the Red Lion that is orbiting Arus on a Galra battlecruiser.

While Hunk wants to just leave Arus with the lions and the castle, not liking the idea of fighting a highly advanced alien civilization with a group of only five people plus two aliens they'd never met before today, everyone else wants to stay and fight, Lance most of all. The others believe Lance only wants to make a good impression on the princess, but Lance knows better. He only discovered what must have happened to his people (whoever they were had been) a few hours ago, but already hatred festers in his gut, and it is this that fuels his will to fight.

* * *

As they prepare themselves for battle with Sendak and his forces, Allura takes them to retrieve their new paladin armor and bayards. While Lance doesn't need the armor to protect himself, he's pretty sure he still needs to breathe, so he takes it without protest. His bayard takes the form of some high-tech sniper rifle, and if he didn't already have his hammer, he'd be in love.

While Lance doesn't like having to play nice and pretending to surrender Blue to the Galra, he can't deny the ingenuity of Shiro's plan. By appearing to be afraid and give Sendak exactly what he wants, they can ensure he won't be looking anywhere else, allowing the others to sneak onto the Galra ship undetected and take the Red Lion.

* * *

The plan is successful. It isn't hard for Hunk and Lance to take out dozens of fighters when they're piloting the most advanced semi-sentient warships the universe has ever seen. Once Keith confirms that he has the Red Lion (Lance would be jealous, but none of the other lions could possibly be better than Blue), they immediately pull back to the Castle of Lions so that they can awaken the Black Lion. Only with all the lions in one place, Allura tells them, can they form Voltron to defeat Sendak's ship.

Forming Voltron feels… odd. While he had always known he wasn't human, Lance had never felt the difference between him and those he camouflaged himself among as keenly as he did now, linked to these four alien minds. They felt like candles in a light breeze, not quite sputtering out, but fragile and spontaneous. His own mind had always been almost like a castle, strong and unassailable, with thoughts rushing along the battlements like little soldiers on patrol. Luckily, while his new teammates can feel the difference in Lance's mind compared to their own, they are all too busy coordinating the massive war machine known as Voltron against Sendak to dwell too deeply on it.

As the Galran ship is torn apart in the cold vacuum of space and Voltron splits apart, Lance knows he will not be so lucky as to escape questioning once everything has settled.

* * *

 **Okay, that's chapter one. Hopefully y'all aren't too disappointed with it, but honestly I'm just having fun writing this and that's why I'm doing it.**

 **Also, if you haven't figured out who Lance is that's kind of sad, but I want to make it clear that THIS IS NOT A MARVEL CROSSOVER. Yes, Lance is Thor. No, Lance is not the Thor from Marvel.**

 **Couple of announcements that y'all may or may not care about:**

 **1\. This** _ **will**_ **be completed, and I'm planning to post semi-weekly on Tuesdays (I know today's Wednesday but it's Tuesday night so I'm just going with that) and Saturdays from now on. The outline is mostly done, and once I have the whole story written up, I may increase how often I post, which leads me to my next point:**

 **2\. I'd like a beta, if anybody's willing, just PM me. I'm pretty confident in my grammar and writing stuff, but I'm an engineer not a journalist so it would probably be best if I have somebody to just read over it. Really, what I want a beta for is to have someone to bounce ideas off of, and maybe tell me which of a few drafts/idea paths (i.e. this chapter I almost wrote it so that they couldn't form Voltron at all because Lance's mind was just too different) is the best to take. TL;DR: be my beta, make sure I do words good, and help me design the story.**

 **One last thing: I've been keeping this story light on dialogue (don't worry, there's actually quite a bit in the next chapter), mostly because I'm shit at writing it, and it's easier on me to focus completely on Lance without worrying about other characters (which I really should to be honest). Let me know if y'all would like more actual fleshed-out conversations, and I'll do my best to deliver.**


	3. Chapter 2

"What the hell is wrong with your head?"

"My head? What the fuck's up with yours?"

"My mind's not the one that feels like—" and here Keith stops, unable to describe the completely _alien_ nature of what they all felt through the link formed through Voltron. The others are silent, just as curious but too confused to even know how to ask.

Lance knows he shouldn't take it personally, but Mullet has always been able to rile him up. Somehow, despite having the social capability of a deformed potato, he's always known exactly what to say to make Lance's blood boil.

"Like what, Keith? Excuse me for being a special fucking snowflake! You think it's hard connecting with one weird mind, try connecting with four!"

He's getting too angry, too open. If he doesn't calm down _right now,_ Lance doesn't know if he can keep from letting something slip. The absolute last think he needs at the moment is to go on a rant explaining all the ways he's always been different from everyone else. He should tell them. He knows he has to eventually. He has the golden opportunity right now, a perfect time to come clean about just how different he is from the rest of them. He won't. He never does.

* * *

Somehow, the rest of the team seems to have come to an agreement to not talk about it after Lance blows up at Keith. Shiro seems to have been the leading force behind this decision, although he does corner Lance soon after and tell him that if he ever needs to talk, Shiro's door will always be open. Lance lies that he'll keep that in mind.

It's not that he doesn't want to talk about what he is, because he'd love to. It's not that he's afraid of their reactions towards him being some kind of alien, because they've gotten along with Allura and Coran without any problems. It's not even that he's worried that they'll be angry at him for lying about his humanity, because after what they've recently been through he doesn't think they'd blame him for trying to survive.

Lance doesn't talk about what he is because he doesn't know. He doesn't know where he came from, or what his species is, or even how his species died (but he can guess, although doing so brings up a red haze that fogs his mind). Hell, he doesn't even know what color his own _blood_ is. Every incident that should have ended in injury or death for a normal human never left him with a scratch. Fallen out of a tree? A fall that seemed to take ten times as long as it should have and a crater in the soft dirt. Crashed his bike into a pole? Broken bike, broken pole, unbroken boy. Even at the height of stupidity, when Lance stuck a fork in an electrical socket because his older brother told him not to, all he felt was a mild burst of _something_ that made him feel energized for the rest of the day.

He's a freak. He knows that. The problem is he doesn't know what _kind_ of freak out of the millions of aliens there must be out there he is, and if he doesn't know, how can he tell anyone else?

* * *

Lance asks Coran to teach him Altean, who happily agrees, eager to pass on anything he can. Lance is pretty sure Coran thinks he wants to learn it to impress Allura (and he'd be lying if that wasn't at least a small part of it), but the true reason is much more personal. Everything in the castle is in Altean, and while some things can easily be set to English, older scholarly articles and hard copies of books cannot. Unfortunately, no matter how many massive databases he searches through, how many dusty Altean tomes he struggles to read, there is no mention of a humanoid race with the power to manipulate electricity on an unprecedented scale.

Refusing to give up, Lance tries to use the castle's scanners to get a better look at the inside of his body.

This does not go well.

* * *

"There you are Lance, I've been—quiznack! Just a tick, I swear we'll get you out of this Number Three, don't worry!" Coran frantically gets out at the sight of Lance being bombarded with enough radiation to actually be visible to the naked eye. Within seconds Coran has slammed the emergency stop button, causing the radiation to come to an abrupt halt as the pod spits Lance out on his hands and knees.

"Why did you stop?" Lance almost shouts, "I was so close!"

Coran apparently takes this the wrong way, saying while pulling him as quickly as he can to the medical bay "Lance, this is not the answer. I don't know what it is that has you feeling this way, but all of us will do our best to help you through it."

It takes Lance a while, standing solid while Coran does his best to yank him off his feet, but eventually he understands, his expression giving way to horror as he tries to explain.

"No—Coran—I wasn't trying to…you know… I was just trying to scan myself!"

Coran halts his futile efforts and quirks an eyebrow, "No scan I've ever seen has used," his eyes widen following a quick look at the scanner, "over one hundred thousand rads? By the ancients, how are you alive? No—it doesn't matter, we need to get your levels down immediately!"

This back-and-forth goes on for some time, with Lance insisting he feels fine, and Coran insisting even more firmly that radiation levels of over a hundred rads can be quite dangerous to humans, never mind one thousand times that, until Lance finally exclaims "But I'm not human, Coran!"

Immediately, Lance's eyes go wide, and he slams a hand over his mouth. It had barely been a month since he'd decided to keep it from the team until he knew more, and here he was blurting out his best-kept secret to Coran (who, to be fair, was very easy to talk to). How could he be so stupid? Oh, well. "In for a penny, in for a pound," breathes Lance.

"What?"

"I'm not human," he says, calmer this time, "but I don't know what I am, and I'm trying to find out. Look at the scanner again. Please."

Slowly, Coran takes another look at the alien monitor, blinking at the information he's being given. The scanner works on the same principles a human X-ray machine does, by sending radiation through a body where dense material such as bone will absorb the radiation and appear brightly on the negative, while skin and tissue are not dense enough to absorb it and allow it to pass through, making it look more transparent. For humans, the average X-ray scan contains maybe three to seven rads. For Alteans, who have evolved stronger and denser, up to fifty rads can be used safely. At one hundred thousand rads, the upper limit on the scanner, there should be nothing but black. Coran's mind knows this. Unfortunately for his mind, his eyes see a completely white silhouette of Lance's body, without even a hint at what's inside.

"But—that shouldn't be possible!" exclaims Coran, eyes practically bugging out.

Lance has never been one for science, but he thinks he understands, considering he's been doing the impossible all his life. "Would you mind elaborating on that?"

"I—the only thing I can think to compare the density to is that of a neutron star or maybe Voltron itself—oh wait till I tell the others—"

"Coran, no! Please, you can't tell anyone else! I don't even know what I am yet and I doubt they'll be accepting if I just say 'hey, I'm not human oh and also my skin is as tough as Voltron, and we don't even know about my bones yet.'" Lance pleads, trying to convey just how important this is to him.

Coran takes a long look at Lance before he solemnly nods his agreement. "On one condition: as soon as this could possibly put the team at risk, you tell at least Allura and Shiro what's going on."

That's more than Lance had thought he would get, so he quickly agrees, and they begin to continue his testing.

* * *

 **Okay, that's all. One thing: sorry, but I'm going back and saying that this is going to be updated once a week on Saturdays from now on. Sorry, but I've realized that I'm going to need more time if I want to be able to actually spend time on the chapters I write and make sure they're good enough to put out, as well as run them through a beta. This does mean that chapters will be longer, as I'll be able to spend more time on them, and also that the story will be more coherent as time goes on (I hope). But yeah, this chapter wasn't as long as I'd like, and I wasn't able to put in a lot of stuff I wanted to, so that's my main reasoning.**

 **Sorry to keep changing it up, but this is my first real fanfiction aside from some little drabbles I write for myself, so let me get a chance to get my feet under me.**

 **Also, let me know how I'm doing! I don't mean to fish for reviews or anything like that, but I can't get better if I don't know how.**

 **Thanks y'all.**


	4. Chapter 3

_First, the world grows cold. The bitter wind that chases away all the warmth reaches even to the golden city, freezing the hearts of men to stone. From every direction this wind blows, a constant with neither beginning nor end. This winter lasts longer than any has before it, and eventually food becomes so scarce that the inhabitants of the world of men are beginning to fight and kill each other for even the smallest morsel._

 _Second, the sky darkens. The twin celestial bodies that provide light to the earth cannot keep their flight forever and are caught by the great beasts that had chased the since the dawn of time. Without the moon, there is even less light than had been present during the winter of short days and long nights. Without the heat of the sun, no life can grow, and men wait to die. Slowly, the rest of the stars in the sky begin to follow the example of the sun and moon, winking out one by one._

 _Third, the foundation of reality trembles and the monsters of the world are set free to roam. A chain that can hold up the world snaps under the eternal pressure, and the enormous wolf howls in victory. From the unfathomable depths of the oceans rises the serpent. His scales smother the earth. The great wolf rampages across the earth; his jaws touch both the ground and sky, devouring everything in its path. The serpent pollutes the earth with the poison that drips from its gaping maw, tainting both the land and seas. Even the air is victim to the deadly toxin, becoming dark and unbreathable._

 _Fourth, the sea responds to the serpent's movements, unmooring a massive ship made using the nails of all men and women who have ever died. Its crew has been waiting for this moment, a chance to unleash the primordial chaos and destruction that they were made for. At its helm stands the traitor, still attached to the broken chains that had once bound him._

 _Finally, the very sky cracks open, and from it, the fire and its soldiers that will claim the earth._

 _His father rides out on his eight-legged horse to meet them, despite having known the outcome of this meeting, as well as what follows, for almost an eternity. Before he leaves, he speaks with the head of the one recognized as the most knowledgeable and wise man to have ever lived to confirm his path._

 _He is too young to help his father. He is too young to understand why his father needs help._

 _A toddler watches his father and his host of men fall to the great wolf, and sees his brother slay the beast in turn. The back and forth of lives seems to be a common theme in the most important battle in history, as the young boy watches another pair of man and wolf take each other's lives, as well as the giant of fire and the man who taught him how to hold his hammer._

 _When the madness is over, there is nothing left. The golden city that was once so proud has been broken and cast into the sea of the cosmos, where the great serpent long enough to circle the earth still resides. The boy is only alive because he is overlooked. Unwanted. Not thought worthy of effort._

 _He thinks he sees two survivors, a man and a woman, secretly ushered into the wood of the tree that gives life to the world, where they will be safely cared for until the world is safe for their kind once more._

 _The hammer comes to him, as it always has in his time of need. Acting on instinct, he feels for his essence, seated low in his chest, and pulls it through the hammer, and his world turns white._

" _Father!"_ cries Lance, one arm outstretched, in an unfamiliar ( _too familiar)_ tongue.

As his racing heart slows down, he shakily retracts his arm and cradles it close to his chest. His hammer appears in his hands, a comfortable and familiar weight to ground him to what is real.

He's had the dream almost nightly for as long as he can remember, but lately more seems to have been added. It's always been scratching at the back of his mind, a constant reminder of the memories he doesn't have. Before his family found him, there is nothing but blankness and a distinct sense of fear and deep sorrow that leaves him hesitant to dig any deeper. It's not like it could mean anything. No matter how much of a freak Lance is, some of the things he remembers from the dream are simply impossible. A snake long enough to completely encircle the world? Something like that would have been discovered years ago, if it existed at all. And considering the fact that he'd done extensive research and no scenario that matched up with the dream had happened in human history, much less in the years leading up to his adoption by his family? It was nothing but a dream brought on by the trauma of whatever caused a young boy to remember nothing of his family.

(Like Lance is normal)

Lance grudgingly rolls out of bed, all too aware that he won't be sleeping again after the dream. As he walks in the direction of the castle's kitchens, he dismisses the hammer back to whatever space it occupies when he's not using it. With a feeling of quick warmth low in his chest, his hammer seems to fold in on itself until nothing is left but empty air.

Lance isn't the only one who has trouble sleeping. As he enters the kitchen in search of something to eat, Shiro looks up from where he was leaning against the counter. The two of them have an understanding after several days of the same, and a comfortable silence falls over the kitchen.

In the beginning, it had been awkward, Shiro having never seen Lance not constantly running his mouth, and Lance seeing his hero and idol shaken in a way he never displayed to the team. Today, Lance breaks the unspoken pact.

"How do you deal with the feeling that something's missing?" asks Lance, looking at the floor.

Shiro starts, not having expected the sudden attempt at communication, but eventually his famed leader instincts kick in and he leans forward.

"I think everybody feels like that sometimes. With how far away we are from home and the purpose we've been given, sometimes it can be hard—"

"No, not as in a sense of purpose or something like that," Lance interjects, "I mean your memories. I know you don't remember a lot of what happened when you were captured by the Galra, so I was just wondering how you deal with that?"

Shiro goes quiet for a moment, studying him.

"Why do you ask?"

Lance takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out.

"You probably don't know this, but I was adopted when I was around five. My family isn't too sure about my exact age or birthdate because I don't remember anything before that. Sometimes it's just hard for me to have a sense of who I am because I've had questions about it for my entire life, and never anything even resembling answers. I just wanted to talk to you about it because you're the only person I've ever met who has had something similar. We're both so different because of things we can't remember, you with your arm and me with—" here, Lance cuts himself off.

The black paladin leans back, and gently prods, "does this have to do with what the others feel in the Voltron link?"

Lance hesitates, then nods. "I think it might, but I'm honestly not sure. There's so much that I just don't understand that I feel is so important. I—I just don't know." He hangs his head, dejected face towards the floor.

Shadows begin to cover him, cast by the body of his leader as he puts his hand on Lance's shoulder.

"I'm not saying I completely understand exactly how this affects you, but I get it. Every day, I look at this arm of mine and wonder how it got there, and what I've done with it. I always wonder what happened during that time, and I can't imagine how you've managed to carry that weight your entire life. I do the only thing I can do, which is to just keep on pushing through every day, hoping that one day I'll remember. I'm sorry I don't have all the answers, but I want you to know that if you ever need to talk about this or anything else, my door is always open."

Lance, swallowing around the lump in his throat, looks up at Shiro and tells him "Thank you."


End file.
